What Information Is Needed to Compare Cleaning Prices Properly?
Two cleaning prices cannot be compared fairly from the headline annual figure alone. A meaningful comparison needs the same underlying inputs behind both figures — the scope and specification being priced, the cleaning frequencies, the site's characteristics, the productive hours assumed, the wage basis used, and what else is included, such as supervision, periodic work, consumables and equipment.
Why it matters
A lower price is not automatically a worse one, and a higher price is not automatically a better one — but a price that looks cheaper because it assumes fewer hours, a lower wage basis, or excludes supervision and periodic work is not genuinely comparable to one that includes them. Facilities managers, school business managers and procurement teams reviewing competing cleaning quotes need to know what's actually inside each figure before drawing any conclusion from the number itself.
Practical explanation
FACTUAL INPUTS REQUIRED FOR A FAIR COMPARISON: - Scope and specification — the areas, tasks and required outcomes the price is actually based on. - Cleaning frequencies — how often each task is delivered, not just a headline weekly hours figure. - Building and site characteristics — size, layout, floor types and access, which affect how long the work genuinely takes. - Productive hours assumed — the number of cleaning hours the price is built on, as distinct from any hours physically present on site. - Staffing assumptions and wage basis — the hourly rate used (for example the National Living Wage or a higher rate), since this materially changes the resulting cost for the same hours. - Supervision and management — whether a supervisor, quality audits and reporting are included or charged separately. - Periodic tasks — whether deeper or holiday cleaning is included in the headline price or quoted separately. - Consumables and equipment — where applicable, whether these are included, and to what standard. - Mobilisation and contract requirements — one-off set-up costs and any minimum contract terms that affect the true comparison.
ICS operational perspective
Practical guidance from ICS — not official or statutory guidance
In practice, the most common reason two cleaning quotes look very different is that they are not actually pricing the same thing — different assumed hours, a different wage basis, or a different set of inclusions, rather than one provider simply being cheaper or more expensive to deliver an identical service. ICS's own Pricing Realism Checker works from your building, hours and wage basis, and its Detailed Pricing Realism Review specifically checks common scope inclusions — such as supervision cover, periodic cleaning, consumables and TUPE/pension considerations — precisely because these are the areas where quotes most often diverge without being stated plainly.
Assumptions
- •A fair comparison assumes both prices are genuinely for an equivalent scope and cleaning standard.
- •The wage basis behind a price should be stated, not assumed — the same headline price can reflect very different hourly rates.
Limitations / what this does not cover
This resource explains what information a fair comparison needs. It does not state that any specific supplied price is too high or too low, and it does not set an industry 'correct' price — that structured, figure-specific comparison is what the Pricing Realism Checker's Detailed Review is for.
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